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Forecasters say a trough coming from the west is pushing the hot air southeast, and Brisbane and surrounding districts will be affected in coming days.

The temperature in Brisbane is predicted to soar to 37 degrees on Friday and 41 on Saturday.

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West of the capital, residents of Ipswich and Gatton are set to endure 43-degree heat on Saturday.

The Bureau of Meteorology’s Pradeep Singh said Queensland’s wet season was unusually late in arriving for the second year in a row.

‘‘Normally the monsoon starts affecting northern Australia around late December/January but it didn’t happen last year and it hasn’t happened this year, so the heat’s just been building up over inland parts of Australia,’’ he said.

The senior meteorologist said a high pressure ridge that was suppressing cloud and thunderstorm activity would be replaced by a trough next week.

‘‘Consequently we’ll see some showers and storms developing over eastern Queensland, and of course it will also bring cooler temperatures,’’ Mr Singh said.

The heatwave is bad news for firefighters battling a blaze on Stradbroke Island off the southeast coast.

The Bureau of Meteorology has warned there is a very high fire danger in the southeast which will probably be upgraded to severe on Saturday.

There is also a high to severe fire danger warning current in the state’s southwest.

Earlier

Brisbane is set to endure one of its hottest-ever days, as a weather system that nudged temperatures near 50C in western Queensland moves towards the coast.

The mercury will reach a rare 41C in the river city on Saturday, forecasters say.

Western and northern parts of Queensland have endured searing heat, with some 20 towns recording temperatures above 40C on Thursday.

The highest was in Birdsville, where it reached 48.7C at 4.39pm, not far off its 49.5C record.

Bedourie, near Mount Isa, wasn't far behind, with a top of 47.3C, which was 0.1 degrees above the station's record.

Urandangi, in the state's northwest, also hit 47.3C.

Bureau of Meteorology forecaster Kevin Hutchins says temperatures will cool slightly in the west as they ramp up in the east.

"Places closer to the coast will start to get quite hot and that trend will continue into Saturday," he said.

"We are forecasting 41 degrees in Brisbane on Saturday.

"It hardly ever gets above 40 degrees. We may see it once a year."

Mr Hutchins says a large, slow-moving high-pressure system is pushing up temperatures and is moving easterly.

"It's because it's so static and it's just sitting there ... and it's getting hotter," he said.

Mr Hutchins says temperatures in Brisbane will begin to cool on Saturday, when there is a small chance of a late shower.